Have Your Very Own Amazing Race Canada Experience in Lethbridge!

The Amazing Race Canada landed in Lethbridge on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, and just as quickly is taking off again next week! The show has finished this leg of their tour in Waterton Great Lakes National Park, which is just a daytrip away from Lethbridge! That doesn't mean you have to hurry through as fast as the racers did! Truth be told, when you're not racing against 9 other teams, you can spend more than a few days exploring the region! Now that you've seen it on TV, it's time you experience the magic of Southern Alberta and Lethbridge for yourself!

From birds to produce, our attractions and local Lethbridge food are making waves nationally and provincially. Keep reading to find out where racers found themselves throughout the city in the episode!

The race starts with racers racing from Quebec to Calgary, where they then make their way two hours south to the windy city of Lethbridge.

Racers then met in the river valley at the rattlesnake statue in Indian Battle Park. There, representatives from the Blackfoot Confederacy welcomed them to the city with a traditional Siksika dance, performed by dancers from the Blackfoot Confederacy! Each team was then gifted a Golden Eagle feather as a sentiment of good luck for the rest of their journey. Hopefully, the winds of Lethbridge bring all the teams luck as they head to their detour!

Racers then completed detours at either the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, or the Fort Whoop-Up Museum. The detours saw racers using their skills and knowledge to survive and understand the Alberta ecology and environment. From matching bird sounds (Courtesy of Alberta Birds of Prey) to herding goats and some simple (or not so simple for a few teams) math, the detours tested teams and showed what Lethbridge is all about!

Locals and past tourists might be wondering about the goats in the episode. While we aren't known for our population of goats, they play an essential role in maintaining the river valley that shapes our city!

The goats at Fort Whoop-Up were a reference to an initiative that leverages goats' natural untamed eating power to deal with invasive species in the river valley. From the weeds to the unwanted, these goats handle the worst of it for us to make pesticides obsolete! While you can't always find a horde of goats roaming the river valley usually, there are some days you can!

On most days at Fort Whoop-Up, visitors can find horse-drawn carriage rides and a donkey hanging out in front of the fort, among informational displays. Not to mention the incredible history and work done all year round at the fort to inform everyone on the history of the river valley in both a colonial and Indigenous context.

As for Helen Schuler Nature Centre, while you may not be put to the test at identifying owl calls like racers were, you will certainly be learning all about the ecology and environment of Lethbridge, Alberta.

Once racers completed their detours, they were sent to Subway, where they were tasked with heading to local farms to find the fresh ingredients used in their subs!

While the farms in the episode aren't specified, that's no worry; since there are so many amazing local farmers in and around Lethbridge, you can always find these delicious fresh options at subway and the local Lethbridge Farmers' Markets.

If you are looking for a café and u-pick to get your fresh produce from, we have you covered! Broxburn Vegetables and Café is a great place to get fresh homegrown produce outside the city. Not to mention, they are part of Canada's Food Tours, which is kind of like a fantastic race for your stomach! If you're looking to find produce in town, though, we have the Downtown Farmers' Markets every Wednesday and Saturday Farmers' Markets at the Lethbridge and District Exhibition.

After teams completed their Road Block challenge of getting fresh produce from local Lethbridge farms, racers were sent to their final roadblock of the leg at Ctrl V on Mayor Magrath!

Some might wonder, since we aren't the video game production epicentre of Canada like Montreal, what the windy city has to do with virtual reality? Quite a bit in fact! The Lethbridge College has an incredible program unlike any other in the country, working to teach students to harness the power of virtual reality and it's opportunities.

Because of this, Lethbridge has made a name for itself as a strong developer in the world of virtual reality, as well as this technologies future. The program also recently received a huge boost from the federal government, so we can keep pushing the boundaries of our reality, right here in Lethbridge.

Teams Completed a Virtual Reality rhythm game that tested their wits and their abilities to keep their cool in new and unexplored universes (or parts of our country). From there, teams were sent to this leg's pitstop!

There, teams met the host, Jon Montgomery, who would be letting them know whether or not they would be eliminated. From Lethbridge, racers headed south to the Waterton Great Lakes National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. It seems that the winds of Lethbridge carried everyone a bit of luck, as all teams in the episode were permitted to move on to the next leg of the race once arriving at the pit stop!

Lethbridge is honoured to have been part of the race, but we are so happy we were not anyone's last stop either!

Now that you know everywhere the racers have been in the city make sure to get out there and visit all the incredible attractions and locations in Lethbridge featured in the episode! with so many amazing attractions and locations showcased, you're sure to be left with a better understanding of Lethbridge than before.

If you were sadly unable to join us for all the fun in Festival Square, you can watch the full Lethbridge episode at CTV.ca or on the CTV app on your own schedule!

While you're out on your own amazing race in Lethbridge, why not try out a Neuron e-scooter or bike to speed things up between stops? No matter how you chose to get around, make sure to tag us in your posts on social media with #ExploreLethbridge so, we can see all the stops on your amazing race around the city!